NASA retires space shuttles with Atlantis

New Delhi: Thirty years and 134 missions later, the United State's Space Shuttle programme is being shut down. Atlantis is the last shuttle to go to space. After launch late on Friday night, it will return to Earth two weeks later, to be mothballed forever.

US President Barack Obama has shut down the Space Shuttle programme, leaving 30,000 workers jobless.

Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator said, "We are not ending human space flight, we are recommitting ourselves to it and taking necessary and difficult step today to ensure America's pre-eminence in human space exploration for years to come."